This period continued the dry spell until yesterday when a forecast snow event remained all rain until mixing with some snow early this morning and depositing 0.57" of almost entirely rain.  This amount was many times the total precipitation we'd seen in October and may help rehydrate the topsoil although the ground was pretty cold so much may just run off.  The 'over-winter' song birds are emptying my feeder twice day now and I've been seeing more moose of late.  Winter is definitely approaching!